Transmission of digital data over analog signal lines, such as telephone lines, involves a number of signal-processing procedures; such as digital-to-analog conversion (DAC), analog-to-digital conversion (ADC), digital and analog filtering, noise suppression, and the like. Typically, separate control of the transmitter-side and the receiver-side are employed to execute these procedures. Particularly, full-duplex operation of a modulator-demodulator (modem) in which simultaneous bidirectional data transmission; i.e., transmission and reception of data signals at the same time.
Although the receive-side and transmit-side procedures are similar in nature, and could be performed by the same micro-processor, in full-duplex operation, the transmitter and receiver of a modem operate at similar, but not identical, speeds. Hence, the processing procedures for the transmitted data and the received data are required to be run at the same time, on occasion. Accordingly, modems employ separate microprocessors, one for the transmit-side and one for the receive-side.
Provision of two separate microprocessors which duplicate each other's capability is a wasteful, expensive and ill-advised from a reliability standpoint. Exacerbating this situation, is the case of a single integrated circuit which is to house all elements of a modem, i.e., a single-chip modem. In this case valuable die space is wasted by the use of two processors.